Yep lovely people
A BBC Panorama programme reported on a number of BNP members who have had criminal convictions, some racially motivated. The BBC's list is extensive. Some of the more notable convictions include:
John Tyndal had a number of convictions including assault, organising and participating in paramilitary neo-Nazi activities. In 1986 he was convicted and jailed for conspiracy to publish material likely to incite racial hatred.[251]
In 1998, Nick Griffin was convicted of violating section 19 of the Public Order Act 1986, relating to incitement to racial hatred. He received a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and was fined £2,300.[252]
Kevin Scott, who in 2001 was the BNP's North East regional organiser, has two convictions for assault and using threatening words and behaviour.[253]
Joe Owens, now expelled but previously a BNP candidate in Merseyside and former bodyguard to Nick Griffin,[254][255] has served eight months in prison for sending razor blades in the post to Jewish people and another term for carrying CS gas and knuckledusters.[256]
Tony Wentworth, former BNP student organiser, was convicted alongside Owens for assaulting demonstrators at an anti-BNP event in 2003.[257]
Colin Smith, who in 2004 was the BNP's South East London organiser, has 17 convictions for burglary, theft, stealing cars, possession of drugs and assaulting a police officer.[258]
Richard Edmonds (at the time BNP National Organiser, currently a member of the BNP's Advisory Council.[citation needed] was sentenced to 3 months in prison in 1994 for violent disorder for his part in a racist attack on a black man in Bethnal Green, London (although he was released after sentencing as he had already served this period on remand). Edmonds hurled a glass at the man as he was walking past the Ship pub in Bethnal Green Road, East London, where a group of BNP supporters were drinking. Others then 'glassed' the man in the face and punched and kicked him as he lay on the ground, including BNP supporter Stephen O'Shea of Purfleet, Essex, who was jailed for 12 months. Another BNP supporter, Simon Biggs from Penge (who smashed a beer glass into the man's face causing deep wounds), was jailed for four and a half years for his part in the attack.[259] He is now Newcastle-upon-Tyne organiser for the National Front.[citation needed].
Tony Lecomber cases
Tony Lecomber was jailed for three years for possessing explosives, after a nail bomb exploded while he was carrying it to the offices of the Workers' Revolutionary Party in 1985;[260] and again for three years in 1991, for assaulting a Jewish teacher.[261] He was Propaganda Director of the BNP at the time of the latter conviction.[262]
Robert Cottage case
In October 2006, Robert Cottage, a ex BNP member who had been a candidate for the party earlier in the year for election to represent Colne on Pendle Council, "was arrested under the Explosives Act on suspicion of possessing chemicals that may be capable of making an explosion."[263] The 22 chemical components recovered by police are believed to be the largest haul ever found at a house in Britain.[264] An associate of Cottage, David Bolus Jackson, whom he had met at a BNP meeting[265] was also arrested at this time.
The case came before Manchester Crown Court on 12 February 2007 where it was claimed by the prosecution that Cottage had plans to assassinate Tony Blair and Liberal Democrat peer Lord Greaves. Cottage pleaded guilty to one count of the possession of explosives, but denied the count pertaining to conspiracy to cause an explosion. Jackson pleaded not guilty.[266] In a statement read in court by the prosecution counsel, Cottage's wife said that he believed that "civil war" was imminent in the UK.[267]
The jury in the trial was unable to reach verdicts and the case was set for retrial in July 2007, when, once again, the jury failed to reach a verdict. The prosecution indicated that it would not seek a further retrial.[268] On 31 July 2007, Cottage was sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment for the charge he had admitted of possessing explosives.